Oak Park, home of Walsall Wood based a few miles down the round from Birmingham. 20th November 2012 and it’s the replay of the FA Vase tie. Away near Birmingham on a school night? That wasn’t gonna stop us! A big group of Shirebrook fans made the trip down after a 3-3 draw after extra time in the first tie.
Arrival at the ground, £3 to enter! Cheers! On first glance of the ground, one word to describe the pitch: Horrendous! Cut up almost everywhere! This made us all wonder how this game survived a pitch inspection but here we were. The flag was put up in the old stand and we waited for kick off but were slightly concerned at the state of the pitch as if it could work in Walsall’s favour. Another group of youths from Walsall were sat next to us in the stand and began to talk and laugh as we started to sing for Shirebrook! Hopefully not a sign of things to come.
Kick Off! Walsall made a bright start to the game, everything we were concerned about before the game about the pitch was happening. Shirebrook were struggling already and couldn’t get out of their own half. 22 minutes gone and Lewis Taylor-Boyce was 1 on 1 with with the last Shirebrook defender, he cut onto his right foot, shot and found the bottom corner… 1-0 and the Walsall fans in delirium with many looking back at us and swearing… not cool! Walsall continued to dominate and alarm bells were ringing with us fans. 5 minutes later a foul by Shirebrook’s Chris Timmons in the area gave the home side a penalty, Taylor-Boyce had the chance to double his money, he stepped up… SAVED! A poor penalty to say the least.
Shirebrook looked relieved and started to get a foothold in the game, around 35 minutes gone and Walsall had the ball in their own half, a ball passed across their own area was controlled and looked like it hit his arm, appeals from the traveling fans and the Referee agreed and pointed to the spot, “We’re back in this” I said… The penalty was saved… Why did I say that? Walsall regained control of the match and with 41 minutes on the clock, a cross met by Walsall’s Danny Owen was headed in to double the host’s lead 2-0 and more stick from the home supporters. Half time soon followed and the score was 2-0.
The second half began, Shirebrook started the better and were enjoying their best spell in the game but the pitch wasn’t a surface the players were used to playing on. Relentless pressure from Shirebrook now but no final answer and Walsall were beginning to look dangerous on the break and on 77 minutes, our fears were realised when Ahmet Bilgimer ran in on the break and sent Walsall Wood through to the next round of the FA Vase. What a waste of a journey!! Shirebrook would not go on to find a consolation leaving us fans less than happy and gave the Walsall fans plenty to smile about.
FT: Walsall Wood 3-0 Shirebrook Town
Ratings
- Atmosphere: 2/10 – Plenty of noise from the Shirebrook Boys but unfortunately the poor performance of Shirebrook drained us all.
- The Ground: 1/10 – Unfortunately not a good ground, The pitch was not fit for purpose and one half of the ground is inaccessible.
- Expense: 5/10 – £3 is a fantastic price for a match but there was no value to add to it sadly, a poor performance on a poor pitch overshadowed the price.
- Overall Experience: 2/10 – Possibly the most irate I’ve ever felt after a football match! Poor performance and a wasted journey unfortunately.
10/40